Villagers in Russia’s Siberia have spotted a giant crater that is sinking and appearing to pull in everything around it. They are calling it ‘doorway to the underworld’ or ‘mouth to hell’ as the giant hole continues to grow.
Locals in Batagay in Yakutia spotted the gigantic opening in the Earth with some believing it to be a passage to the underworld.
Pictures of the Batagaika crater doing the rounds show a huge mass of Earth sinking and appearing to pull in everything around it.
The Batagaika crater, which has been measured since the 1980s, is at the moment around one kilometre long and 86 metres deep.
Scientists believe that the giant crater is the result of a melting permafrost land, which was frozen during the Quaternary Ice Age 2.58 million years ago, reports British newspaper The Daily Mirror.
When the forest area was cleared in the 1960s, sunlight reached the ground and started to warm it.
Ice in the soil started to melt and this caused the ground to compact, slump, and subside.
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Scientists predict that more ‘mouths to hell’ may soon appear around the world due to the impact of global warming.
A study presented in 2016 by Frank Günther from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany revealed that the head wall of the crater has grown by an average of 10 metres (33 feet) per year over the past decade of observations.
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And in warmer years, the growth has been up to 30 metres (98 feet) per year.
The Yakut people who inhabit the area, have reportedly been hearing unsettling booms coming from the site.
(With inputs from agencies)
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